MDE-Breakthroughs+&+Heresies

Essential Features of Structured, Inclusive Academic Discussions =Ability Grouping for ELs=
 * =Claude Goldenberg on Clustering/=
 * [[file:goldenberg-clustering-and-grouping.docx|Word Version]]
 * [[file:goldenberg-on-clustering-and-grouping.pdf|PDF Version]]

John's commentary (email response to question on clustering)
 * [[file:john-on-clustering.doc|Word Version]]
 * [[file:john-on-clustering.pdf|PDF version]] || A teacher from Brooklyn Park emailed me and asked what the research about clustering English Learners. For this -- as for most "what does the research say" questions -- I consulted the work of Stanford University professor Claude Goldenberg, the go-to guy this decade for summarizing and synthesizing ESL research.

Here is a section from his 2010 book, Promoting Academic Achievement Among English Learners ... and below is my commentary on it (although my commentary is pretty much a rambling re-statement of what Goldenberg says ... but with some discussion of why despite the fact that clustering MAKES SO DARN MUCH SENSE, it probably isn't a good idea. ||
 * =Clustering Take 2=
 * [[file:Clustering2-ESL-as-the-Crooked-Path.doc|Word Version]]
 * [[file:Clustering2-ESL-as-the-Crooked-Path.pdf|PDF Version]] || This is my second "take" on a different clustering question. Here the question is this:

What about deciding NOT to spread ELs equally across a grade level, but to "cluster" them in a limited number of classrooms to provide for more efficient / higher levels of support?

In other words, instead of **balancing class enrollment lists** (so that all teachers across a grade level have similar numbers of English Learners) you purposefully **concentrate your ELs in classrooms,** sometimes accompanied by **corresponding re-distributions of resources.** (What do I mean by "re-distribution of resources"? Maybe it means more co-teaching. Maybe it's smaller class sizes. Maybe it's greater access to AE support.)

Here I arrive at the very unsatisfying position that there's no easy answer, no clear rule to decide what's best. ... || =The Strength-Training Analogy=
 * =Clustering Take 3:=
 * [[file:clustering-clarification3-the-strength-training-analogy.pdf|PDF Version]] || Okay, this is my last disquisition on Clustering -- where I distinguish between "simple homogeneous grouping" (bad) and the common-sense scheduling of students into classrooms to allow for optimal ESL support (good).

Then I spin an analogy and a vision that compares ESL Support to Strength Training for athletes. That's we all aspire too. If you read one discussion of ESL services that incorporates a reference to a 1993 article from "The Iron Game Journal," an academic journal on the history of college football, this is the one. . || Emerging Scholarship in ESL/Bilingual Education" || How long does it take to achieve English Language Proficiency. As the profession moves towards data-based practice, we're compiling an increasingly richer portrait of the path towards English Proficiency. || || Three sources demonstrating the converging consensus: All English Learners need 30 minutes a day of high quality English Language Development up through proficiency. || from form-focused activities. Batia Laufer, University of Haifa, Israel. || 2008 – Mehrpour. A Comparison of the Effects of two Vocabulary Teaching Techniques || 2005. Horst. Expanding Academic Vocabulary with a Collaborative On-line Database) || > > **On Dictionaries:** "When developing a classroom dictionary, lexicographers strive to conserve space in order to include as many entries as possible. Therefore, deﬁnitions are customarily crafted to be precise and concise, ironically omitting the very components that often are most critical to grasping the meaning of a new word: an accessible explanation using familiar language and an age-appropriate example that is relevant to children’s own experiences." (p. 2) || based on computer corpus study as explained here: http://jbauman.com/aboutgsl.html#this ||
 * [[file:Breakthroughs & Heresies.pptx]] || The PowerPoint version of John's Friday, May 4, 2012 MDE Breakout session, "Breakthroughs and Heresies:
 * [[file:breakthroughs-list.docx]]' || The list of 15 heresies & breakthroughs. ||
 * || ==** Breakthrough 1: The Next Big Thing: John Hattie's Visible Learning books. **== ||
 * [[file:John Hattie1.docx]] || An introduction to John Hattie's amazing 2009 Visible Learning, a review that analyzes the 138 factors that empirical research has shown to affect teaching and learning. ||
 * [[file:hattie-intro-2-pages.docx]] || The first two pages of John Hattie's 2011 //Visible Learning for Teachers//. Hattie's First Commandment for teachers: "Know thy Impact ||
 * || ==** Breakthrough 2: Developmental Progressions as the Basis for ELD Progress Monitoring **== ||
 * THE WIDA Progress Monitoring Tools || Our efforts at adapting the WIDA tools to be used as an English Language Development progress monitoring tool. ||
 * [[file:ELD-Matrix-of-Grammatical-Forms.doc]] || **Susana Dutro's Matrix of Grammatical Forms.** Another developmental progression of language acquisition, this one focused more on the language structures appropriate to each stage in the language acquisition process. ||
 * [[file:Second Language Communication Strategies.docx]] || **Chesterfield and Chesterfield's Developmental Progression of Second Language Communication Strategies.** According to the Chesterfields, second-language communication strategies also emerge in a natural order aligned to proficiency levels. ||
 * || ==** Breakthrough 3: Time Studies .**==
 * [[file:Second Language Communication Strategies.docx]] || **Chesterfield and Chesterfield's Developmental Progression of Second Language Communication Strategies.** According to the Chesterfields, second-language communication strategies also emerge in a natural order aligned to proficiency levels. ||
 * || ==** Breakthrough 3: Time Studies .**==
 * || ==** Breakthrough 3: Time Studies .**==
 * [[file:L2-oral-profic-over-time.doc]] || Genessee (2005) summary of Hakuta's data on the average growth rates of ELs in US schools over the first six years. ||
 * California Legislative Office's 2004 report on EL Proficiency growth over time. || The English Proficiency attainment rates of ELs in California schools broken down by Mandarin, Vietnamese, Hmong and Spanish ||
 * [[file:mean-proficiency-annual-growth-WIDA-focus-on-growth.pdf]] || **This is the document you've been looking for!**
 * Annual WIDA Proficiency-Level Growth Rates** broken down by GRADE CLUSTER and by WIDA LEVEL. (From a WIDA publication on growth and the W-ACCESS. **This is the document we've all been looking for!** ||
 * || ==** Breakthrough 4: Emerging Consensus on the Need for a Separate ELD Instruction. **== ||
 * [[file:california-2010-saunders-guidelines + hakuta + dutro box.doc]]
 * || ==** Breakthrough 5: The Next Big Controversy: De-contextualized Vocabulary Study **== ||
 * [[file:vocab 2.docx]] || Summary of the Decontextualized Vocabulary controversy. Studying vocabulary lists has curiously dropped out of US ESL practice. My guess is that like grammar study (i.e., form-focused ELD), decontextualized vocab study is on the way back -- as it should be. ||
 * || == Recent scholarship IN SUPPORT OF learning vocabulary with word lists. == ||
 * Laufer, 2009 || 2009. Second language vocabulary acquisition from language input and
 * Laufer, 2009 || 2009. Second language vocabulary acquisition from language input and
 * Mehrpour, 2008 || Based on a study of 50 Iranian EFL learners, Mehrpour concludes that "rote memorization of word-lists can work better than sentence-making practice, especially for Iranian learners of English at low levels of proficiency." (
 * Mehrpour, 2008 || Based on a study of 50 Iranian EFL learners, Mehrpour concludes that "rote memorization of word-lists can work better than sentence-making practice, especially for Iranian learners of English at low levels of proficiency." (
 * Horst, 2005 || University students in an experimental ESL course used the resources — concordancing, dictionary, cloze-builder and hypertext tools — to study items on the Academic Word List (Coxhead, 2000). (
 * || ==** Breakthrough 6: Huh (Diverse Interesting Points) **== ||
 * Narrowing the Language Gap: The Case for Explicit Vocabulary Instruction (Kevin Feldman & Kate Kinsella) || Feldman and Kinsella's essay on the need for comprehensive vocabulary instruction. Two interesting points:
 * **On "Context Clues":** "Research indicates the odds of deriving the intended meaning of an unknown word from written context is, unfortunately, extremely low, varying from 5% to 15% for both native speakers and Englishlanguage learners (Beck et al. 2002; Nagy et al. 1985)." (p. 2)
 * **On "Context Clues":** "Research indicates the odds of deriving the intended meaning of an unknown word from written context is, unfortunately, extremely low, varying from 5% to 15% for both native speakers and Englishlanguage learners (Beck et al. 2002; Nagy et al. 1985)." (p. 2)
 * The effects of syntactic and lexical complexity on the comprehension of elementary science texts (Arya et al., 2011) || **Differential Effects of Lexical and Syntactical Complexity.** Arya and colleagues argue that the lexical demands of science texts impact the comprehensibility, but that the syntactical complexity does not. The reason, they suggest, is that in simplified texts, the logical connections between statements tend to be stripped out. So the easier syntax is offset by the fact that the logical connections between statements tendto be stripped out. //(Huh, why was I so crazy about this study? I guess it's because it speaks to two -- and arguably all three -- of the WIDA CVC criteria.)// ||
 * [[file:general-word-list.doc]] || Bauman & Culligan's 1995 General Word List (~2,000 most common headwords in English,
 * || == Breakthrough 7: Oral Interaction == ||
 * Genessee et al., 2005. English Language Learners in U.S. Schools: An Overview of Research Findings || While an early section stresses the importance of oral language development for English Language Development (366 ff.), a later section warns that unless carefully designed and structured, classroom oral interaction activities provide few or no language development gains (368 ff.). ||
 * [[file:Saunders&Goldenberg on Oral Interactive Activities.doc]] || From Chapter 2 of the California DoE research guide, Saunders and Goldenberg cite studies towards what makes for effective oral interaction activities. ||
 * Essential Features of Structured, Inclusive Academic Discussions || Kate Kinsella's handouts to support "structured, inclusive academic discussions." ||
 * || = Breakthrough 9: Two Great Tech Tools = ||
 * Directions to use the Variable Play function on Windows Media Player || media type="custom" key="17427854" ||
 * On-Line Language Exchanges || John Hattie (2011) argues that teachers must become "expert activators" of student learning, directing students to appropriate opportunities for "deliberate practice" (or "extensive engagement in relevant practice activities for improving performance.") It will be interesting to see whether "on-line language exchanges" (in which language students worldwide exchange language practice, serving as conversational and learning resources for each other) will be one of these opportunities. Is this the type of powerful learning activity that we're called on to sponsor? (Or will concerns of safety, security, and privacy make this structure too problematic?) ||
 * || == Breakthrough 10: A Spanish-Language Reading Assessment Tool. == ||
 * Renaissance Learning's Star Reading Spanish || In MPS, a constant challenge is doing adequate assessment in Spanish in our bilingual programs. Since District policy tends to require all students (even those instructed in Spanish) to take the MAP and other in-English assessments, we risk doubling the assessment burden on students in bilingual programs. Renaissance Learning's STAR Reading test in Spanish (new this year) is one powerful solution. We've contacted the company about getting a District contract, but haven't yet sealed the deal. ||
 * =media type="custom" key="25492628"On the Importance of Assessment in Bilingual Programs= || From page 17, Chapter 1 ("Bilingual Education" by Mary Brisk) in the 2005 Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning
 * || == Breakthrough 10: A Spanish-Language Reading Assessment Tool. == ||
 * Renaissance Learning's Star Reading Spanish || In MPS, a constant challenge is doing adequate assessment in Spanish in our bilingual programs. Since District policy tends to require all students (even those instructed in Spanish) to take the MAP and other in-English assessments, we risk doubling the assessment burden on students in bilingual programs. Renaissance Learning's STAR Reading test in Spanish (new this year) is one powerful solution. We've contacted the company about getting a District contract, but haven't yet sealed the deal. ||
 * =media type="custom" key="25492628"On the Importance of Assessment in Bilingual Programs= || From page 17, Chapter 1 ("Bilingual Education" by Mary Brisk) in the 2005 Handbook of Research in Second Language Teaching and Learning

Choosing an appropriate model does not ensure success.
 * Shared Features of Successful Programs **

Programs that work almost invariably have a small set of very well-specified goals ... a clear set of procedures and materials linked to those goals, and **frequent assessments that indicate whether or not students are reaching the goals**. Effective programs leave little to chance. They incorporate many elements, such as research-based curricula, instructional methods, classroom management methods, assessments, and means of helping students who are struggling, all of which are tied in a coordinated fashion to the instructional goals. (Fashola, Slavin, Calderon, & Duran, 2001, p. 49) ||
 * || == Breakthrough 11: A Classic Study with Implications for ESL/Bilingual == ||
 * Judith Langer's 2000 "Beating the Odds" Study || In this 2000 study, Judith Langer identified schools and classrooms that out-performed their similar-demographic neighbors. She then launched a massive qualitative studies of both types of classrooms (the "normal performing" and "beating the odds" classrooms).
 * Judith Langer's 2000 "Beating the Odds" Study || In this 2000 study, Judith Langer identified schools and classrooms that out-performed their similar-demographic neighbors. She then launched a massive qualitative studies of both types of classrooms (the "normal performing" and "beating the odds" classrooms).

This effort resulted in the identification of six factors that seemed to make a difference in student learning:
 * Approaches to Skills Instruction
 * Approaches to Test Preparation
 * Approaches to Connecting Learnings
 * Approaches to Enabling Strategies
 * Conceptions of Learning
 * Classroom Organization

Langer's discussion of BTO teachers' approach in each of these areas is useful as we think of our ESL and Bilingual classrooms. ||